Exactly How Much More Expensive Is it to Buy a Crudité Platter Versus Make One Yourself?

Let's face it: We all know that pre-assembled veggie platters at the supermarket are more expensive than buying the veggies separately and prepping them yourself. But who wants the hassle of washing and chopping and arranging all those vegetables? Could the convenience really cost that much more?

Let's take a look at Whole Foods, for example. The store is known for its high-quality and mostly organic produce, typically sold at not-exactly-bargain prices. The store offers a "small" vegetable platter with 1 pound and 11 ounces of vegetables for $16.99. That works out to 63 cents per ounce.

If you were to buy those veggies separately, here's how it would break down.

Organic celery: $1.49 per pound

Organic baby carrots: $1.69 per pound

Organic cherry tomatoes: $3.99 per pound

Organic broccoli florets: $2.49 for 12 ounces

Organic cauliflower florets: $2.49 12 ounces

Total: $12.15 for 4 pounds and 8 ounces of produce. That's about 17 cents an ounce. It would only cost about $4.60 to put together a platter the same size as the pre-made one, which means you're paying an extra $12.40 for the grab-and-go convenience!

Seriously, you could get nearly three pounds more organic vegetables for about $5 less than the pre-arranged platter.

Okay, sure, we're talking Whole Foods prices, which aren't exactly the cheapest around. But it turns out buying the produce individually — even at Whole Foods — is still a better deal than Costco's veggie platter, which is not organic but costs $12.99 for 4 pounds (including a tub of dip) and is the cheapest platter we could find.

Bottom line: Even the cheapest pre-made vegetable platter will cost more than buying organic produce individually at one of the priciest grocery stores. That's not to say you should never buy a pre-made crudité platter! Sometimes the convenience really is just worth it, like if you're making a ton of these veggie & hummus cups.

What do you think? Are you ever willing to pay up this much for the convenience of a ready-to-go crudité platter?